Thursday, November 14, 2013

Magoo's Arcade

In fifth grade, on Fridays, the kids are allowed to open businesses. They had to write up a business license and get approved and everything. Most kids are doing some kind of shop: selling pencils, erasers, rainbow loom bracelets, etc. We already had this carnival plinko game from a birthday party, so Magoo opened an arcade.

For $5 (classroom currency) students get three discs to drop onto the board. Each disc lands in a number. Then Magoo adds up all their points. If they get 7 points of higher, they win a prize.

The prizes are keychains - or as Magoo calls them "tokens."

I found a FABULOUS product - inkjet Shrinky Dinks! Magoo makes a design (below) and then he scans it into the computer. I help a bit with the layout, but then Magoo colors it in on Photoshop.

We do four tokens per batch, so kids can come back and try to win different tokens.

So far, his business has done well and the kids have really liked the tokens. Magoo is very excited and is getting into the design aspect of making his prizes. He's also taking requests. The classroom fish, Frisbee, just passed away and a girl suggested he make a Frisbee token.

This has been a really great project for Magoo. He's learning about running a business, marketing, design, Photoshop, and paying attention to what his customers like and don't like.

It'd be nice if the classroom currency was able to help chip in for Shrinky Dinks, but I don't mind. The money is well worth it to see his enthusiasm for this classroom project.